The following is an assignment typically found in doctoral psychology classes to create debate, discussion, and learn how to articulate principles of psychology and understand the founders of psychology. “According to Freud, healthy adults successfully progress through the first four of five stages of psychosexual development and then persist in the final stage. Do you agree or disagree with Freudian theory as applied to gender identity issues? Why?”
I have not copied the full assignment parameters due to a commitment to not letting assignments out of the college. But I listed the parts of the assignment to fully appreciate the following original response and provide you, the reader, some context. Before we can combat bad ideas, we need to know where they originate. History is important!
None of the above should be an option to select where the topic of psychosexuality is concerned. In fact, I wish I could get a brain scrub and flush this nonsense out. From reading Hothersall (2015), it appears Freud is the first to confuse gender and sex, make sex the ultimate pleasure, and project adult understandings of sex onto innocent children. Diamond (2002) offered several different definitions to aid the uninitiated in understanding sex, gender, and the current mess we are in with both.
Diamond (2002) provided some clarity on the terms in the discussion. Sex is determined by either having gametes or receiving the same and is biologically tied. Gender is the choice one makes to live as one decides in a socially diverse society, and these choices might or might not be connected to the traditional roles assigned by biology. Hence, the stages of psychosexual development from Freud (Hothersall, 2015) are nullified by the individual’s agency to progress and the natural consequences of making a choice, not a biological clock moving the individual through various ambiguous stages or levels of sexual identification.
Since gender depends upon societal roles and sex upon biology, I firmly disagree with Freud as applied to gender identity issues. It appears that Freud was sexually frustrated and projected his adult views of behavior onto children, then tied pleasure to sex, and perverted all types of thinking where child/adult relationships occur. Second, gender identity is the individual’s choice in society. If the community accepts multiple gender-based roles, then that society will have to deal with all the imaginations of the mind where gender collides with agency and action.
Of critical importance to the psychosexuality discussion, is that freedom to choose doesn’t mean freedom from consequences that cannot be chosen. For example, I can choose to touch something hot, but cannot decide not to be burned. How long and how firmly I hold that hot item identifies how deep the burn will be, but I cannot escape being burned by holding/touching something hot. The same is valid for choosing different gender identities in society. There are always consequences for the choices made.
When I said I wanted a brain scrub, I meant precisely that. I am not even desiring to discuss these topics, mainly due to the lack of logic employed when talking about sex and dysfunctional behavior. Psychosexuality and behavior are where I disagree with Freud the most (Hothersall, 2015).
MacKenzie, Garavan, and Carbery (2011) offered an excellent description of how dysfunctional behavior is a choice of individual people, organizations, and society as a whole. To which, Gaudiano (2008) would suggest cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a method for correcting the dysfunctional behavior and improving the individual. Not, to explore the sexual frustrations of the individual and project these frustrations onto the world around us as directed by Freud (Hothersall, 2015).
Hossain and Karim (2013) wonderfully diagram the problems with postmodern thinking and provide the tools needed to understand why these problems hinder societal growth and development. To advertise the confusion and issues in postmodernism and the current issues in confusing gender and sex, Aleshire (2016) promotes having nurse practitioners understand the confusing realm of gender identity in an attempt to help the patient feel included, thus receiving a higher standard of care. Completely neglecting that professionalism means doing the job properly, not learning the mental health of a patient.
Aleshire (2016) firmly pointed out a consequence of gender identity choices, feelings of persecution, not being understood, and stigmatization feelings by society. What is being described by Aleshire (2016) are projections from the individual and not a reality. I would surmise that many people in American society do not care what gender role you choose, keep it to yourself and your cohorts, do not force the entire community to care about your preferences, and respect the rest of our choices not to engage. You can be whatever gender role you prefer. Provided your sexual choices do not infringe upon others’ rights or destroy other people’s property or livelihoods.
Hossain and Karim (2013) supplied another major problem in understanding the confusion in psychosexuality and dysfunctional behavior, the plasticity of words. Aleshire (2016) mentioned this same problem, only calling the issue one of fluidity in terminology. Regardless, when sex and gender become confused enough, problems arise when merely trying to communicate. Words have meanings, and words should not be mutated, spindled, and torn from their definitions’ bedrock foundation. Diamond (2002) provided simple definitions and reasoning for this discussion, and a careful and thorough understanding of the terminology is critical to communication.
Now, where did I put the bleach and scrub brushes? I need both a brain scrub and a good hand washing. What an incredible mess!
Having discussed psychosexuality and provided a basis for the conversation, would you be interested to note that the reason psychosexuality exists at all was due to the dumbing down of education, originating in the writings of Wilhelm Wundt in 1832? Wundt assumed that there is nothing there (no soul), to begin with, but a body, a brain, a nervous system, and that to educate a person, the teacher must induce sensations. Skinner, Pavlov, and so many others celebrated as the fathers of psychology represent the theories that have been destroying education, ruining potential, and disrupting freedom.
The following is recommended reading, “The Leipzig Connection: The Systematic Destruction of American Education,” is relatively short and easy to comprehend; but, the book represents some dynamic lines of congruence which tie the problems in the modern school curricula to historical actions to undermine freedom and liberty, replacing the US Constitution with the United Nations, Socialism, Communism, and dumbed down citizens. The American classroom has been intentionally overrun with induced sensations, inspired emotions to gain control over the student, and inspired and instigated reactions to dull the mind and reduce the human to an animal.
I cannot stress this point enough. If we, the conservatives of America, are to begin to reverse course, open freedoms are stolen by the government, and keep liberty through Constitutional Law in a Republican form of government alive, we must understand what is happening. There is Truth in saying that today’s classroom philosophies are tomorrow’s governmental actions. The progressives of yesterday are today’s liberal leftists, and they have a stranglehold because they have won the fight for the classroom.
Our first actions cannot be on the Federal Government level; they must be in our neighborhoods’ school boards and classrooms. Our children deserve better from the ridiculously expensive education we are paying for. Look locally, act locally, and within a generation (20-years), the American heritage we were handed will be enshrined as that “shining city on a hill.” If we fail to capture the classroom, nothing is stopping the American Republic from disappearing into history!
References
Aleshire, M. E. (2016). Sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression: What are they? The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12(7), 329-330. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2016.03.016
Diamond, M. (2002). Sex and gender are different: Sexual identity and gender identity are different. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(3), 320-334. doi:10.1177/1359104502007003031
Gaudiano, B. A. (2008). Cognitive-behavioural therapies: Achievements and challenges. Evidence-Based Mental Health11:5-7.
Hossain, D. M., & Karim, M. M. S. (2013). Postmodernism: Issues and problems. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(2), 173-181. Retrieved from http://www.ajssh.leena-luna.co.jp/AJSSHPDFs/Vol.2(2)/AJSSH2013(2.2-19).pdf
Hothersall, D. (2015). The history of clinical psychology and the development of psychoanalysis. In J. Hadley (Ed.), Psychoanalysis (pp. 2-53). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Available fromhttp://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/mcgraw-hill/2015/psychoanalysis-custom_ebook_1e.php
Iserbyt, C. T. (1999). The deliberate Dumbing down of America: A chronological paper trail [Adobe Digital Edition].
Lionni, P., & Klass, L. J. (1980). The Leipzig connection: The systematic destruction of American education [Kindle].
MacKenzie, C., Garavan, T. N., & Carbery, R. (2011). Understanding and preventing dysfunctional behavior in organizations. Human Resource Development Review, 10(4), 346-380. doi:10.1177/1534484311417549
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